Fireflies, Fireworks, and a Special Shooting Star
by hylianprincessZ
Summary: He swore his IQ doubled every time he hung out with Zelda, and that's one of the reasons why he loved her. The others were, she was funny, humble, beautiful, and the nicest person around. If he had to choose between her and the Princess of Destiny, he would pick Zelda any day. Although she would never notice, she obviously didn't feel the same way about him. 4th of July, Zelink!


**Hello guys and gals! Happy 4th of July! Here's my commemorative one-shot, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. Have a safe and fun holiday! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Legend of Zelda.**

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Fireflies, Fireworks and a Special Shooting Star

"No, stop!" A 22yr old blonde girl laughed as a man tickled her in the meadow. Their friends around them laughed and goaded the boy on. The boy grinned cheekily and stepped back, allowing the girl time to catch her breathe.

"Well Zelda? Are you going to take that back now?" The boy challenged, placing his hands on his hips, the smirk still in place.

"Hell no, Link you bastard." Zelda choked out in between fits of laughter.

Link held his fingers up menacingly, "You sure? I mean I have these perfectly lethal weapons literally on my hands, and I know how to use them."

"I'll say it again Link. You are bor-ING!" The last part came out of Zelda's mouth as a squeal, because Link had resumed tickling her stomach and Zelda tried to push him away.

"Hey you two love birds!" A boy with a green baseball cap and orange hair called out, "Can you keep it down? The fireworks are going to start soon!'

Link stopped his tickling rampage for a few moments to reply, "Oh shut it Mido! They don't start for another twenty five minutes!"

Mido grumbled something unintelligible and turned away, placing his arm back around his green haired girlfriend, Saria.

"Alright I'll give you one last chance Zelda. Take. It. Back." Link resumed his threatening stance, moving his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

Zelda laughed again, wiping the tears from her eyes, "Alright. I take it back, you, sir, are a conniving little beast."

Link mock bowed, tilting his head up to meet Zelda's eyes, "At your service, princess."

Zelda rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him, "If you weren't my best friend I would so round-house kick you right now. Now sit down! You're blocking my view."

Link complied, plopping down on the picnic blanket, in the most un-graceful way imaginable, right next to Zelda.

"Goddesses, why are you so weird?" Zelda asked.

"Because I am who I am." Link stated dramatically.

Zelda just laughed, "Got that right, there is no one else out there quite like you."

"Why thank you princess!"

Zelda rolled her eyes and laid back. She looked at the sky, where it was filled to the brim with twinkling stars. It was the fourth of Din, the day of independence for Hyrule. 200 and some years ago, the Hero of Time defeated the King of Evil along with the help of the Princess of Destiny, freeing Hyrule from evil's grasp. Every year after that, the whole kingdom celebrated in a seven day celebration (symbolizing the gap of seven years the hero faced, and the seven sages), filled with fireworks, balls, food, and parades. Today was the first day, and it was the best day to view fireworks, seeing it was going to be cloudy for the next six days.

Link lay back as well, sighing contently and putting his arms behind his head.

"Look, there's the Hero's Belt." He said, pointing to three stars that were close together.

"Yeah, did you know that one of those stars isn't actually a single star but a variable star? All of the other stars' light just mixes together to form one big blob of light."

Link whistled, long and low, "Amazing." he said underneath his breath.

Zelda nodded, "Yep, and the King of Evil's Head Jewel is actually a Red Super-Giant. It was a really hot star, about O or B class, then it ran out of hydrogen and its core collapsed and then expanded, like, 10 or more times its size, to be able to convert Carbon to energy. In a couple billion years it'll collapse again and expand in what is called a supernova and either becomes a pulsar or a black hole."

"Whoa Zellie, how do you know all of this?" Link said, turning on his side to look at her.

She shrugged, "I just really love space." she said simply, and continuing to look at the sky.

Link shook his head and resumed looking at the sky, "You sell yourself too short Zel."

"I know."

Link chuckled, and out of the corner of his eye he saw her smile as well.

"Alright Miss-Know-It-All what is that?" Link pointed to a large group of stars that vaguely shaped a stick figure with its hands up.

"That's the Princess of Destiny. Her constellation is really important to most scientists because of all the emission, light, and dark nebulae found inside of her constellation. Nebulae are the birthplace for stars and stars, when they supernova, will disperse nebulae. It's really true to the saying 'What goes around comes around'"

Link nodded. He swore his IQ doubled every time he hung out with Zelda, and that's one of the reasons why he loved her. The others were, she was funny, humble, beautiful, and the nicest person around. If he had to choose between her and the Princess of Destiny (she was rumored to be goddess-like beautiful, creating her own cult of followers. Although it was reported that she never had any knowledge of such a cult.) He would pick Zelda any day. Although she would never notice, she obviously didn't feel the same way about him. She thought of him strictly as a friend and confidant, nothing more. Most people would say that was better than nothing, but Link couldn't be satisfied with that. He wanted to protect from anything and everything, especially heartache. He would never do something that would hurt her, he would rather die first.

Link glanced around the meadow, located in an opening in Kokiri forest so it was surrounded by trees, and noticed it was fairly filled with people. It was a comfortable amount, and none of the people were too loud. Except for when Link had given Zelda a tickle attack, there were only soft murmurs from the crowd. He squinted for a second, and then reconfirmed what he saw.

"Hey Zelda," He said, nudging her with his elbow, "look there are fireflies!"

She sat up, swishing her blonde hair to one side of her shoulder, "Oh wow! You're right! Hey, let's go catch some."

"Sure!" Link stood up, brushing off his pants. They walked past Mido and Saria, Midna and Dark, Anju and Kafei, and finally Mikau and Ruto. Link wished she hadn't, but Zelda asked each of the couples to join them in catching the little glowing critters. Each of them agreed happily and got up off of their blankets. They ran around the meadow catching the glowing bugs then shouting to one another when they did.

"Hey Link look at this one! It's so tiny, like a baby." Zelda said and opened her hand to reveal the tiny black and red insect as the yellow-green glow was cast off of it.

"Aww how cute, how about this one?" Link opened his hand (grinning) as Zelda stuck her face in to get a look.

"AAAAAACK!" She squealed, jumping back. The baby firefly (obviously scared) flew away from her hand back into the night air. Link laughed uncontrollably.

"It's just a worm stupid." He said, dangling the slimy creature between his index finger and thumb.

"I thought you were supposed to be catching fireflies." She muttered, stomping away from him. Link laughed again and placed the worm in the dirt, and ran up to Zelda.

She saw him approach and looked away from, trying to feign indifference. Suddenly Mikau squealed out in his boyish way, "Look! A shooting star! Make a wish everybody."

Both Link and Zelda turned to look up at the sky, watching as the white light jetted across the sky, and stop as quickly as it came. Link thought of his wish for a moment, but then it came to him. He wished for it silently then turned to Zelda.

"What is a shooting star really?" he asked, knowing Zelda had an answer.

"Shooting stars are actually rocks that are present in space. They enter Earth's atmosphere at amazing velocities and end up burning up. While burning up, they glow and that is the light we see as they streak across the sky." She replied happily, already forgetting about the worm incident.

"Amazing." Link said, gaining new insight to the world of science.

"What did you wish for?" she asked him suddenly.

"Can't tell, otherwise it won't come true." Link stuck his tongue out like a five year old, "but you can tell me yours!"

Zelda pouted, "Fine. I wished that the fireworks would start soon."

Link was blatantly disappointed with her wish. _Come one Zelda_ he thought.

Outwardly, he just shrugged, "They should be starting any moment now, so we should head back to the blanket."

Zelda nodded and followed him back. She sat down in the same spot as before and leaned back on her elbows. Link followed, resuming his position from before with his hands behind his head.

"So are you going to tell me now? I mean I told you mine." Zelda probed.

Link sighed, "Nope. Now shush, the fireworks are starting."

Zelda mumbled something incoherent but said nothing else. Sure enough the first rocket filled the sky and exploded with a loud boom. It burst into a shower of white, making the shape of the Triforce. The entire crowd 'Oohd' and 'Aaahd' at the following showers of color that lit the sky. One of the fireworks exploded and depicted a short fight between a man in green and a man in red (since fireworks don't come in black) where in the end the boy ran his sword through his stomach. Very family-friendly, no?

The green of the hero's tunic felt from the sky like dripping water and finally died out. Another rocket shot up and depicted a beautiful maiden in a shower of pinks, purples, blues, and greens, playing the ocarina in front of the same hero in green. This was the dramatic scene in the clouds where the Hero is sent back to his own time that inspired many paintings, poems, songs, and even plays. A few seconds after the scene arrived printed across the sky, it dripped to the earth as well, finally disappearing from view.

"I hate fireworks." Zelda suddenly muttered.

"Why?" Link asked, arching his eyebrows.

"They always disappear just as you get a grip at their beauty. They never stay. Like everything else in the world." She shrugged, a scowl appearing on her flawless face.

"That was very philosophical of you." Link commended and returned to the sky, where the show was finally coming to an end. As the last firework shot across the sky, also depicting the Triforce, people began to pack up. Link helped Zelda roll up their blanket, and he held it as they walked out of the meadow to a dirt path. They walked down it with all of their friends, laughing and joking, and commentating on the show.

"Did you see the one of the Princess of Destiny?" Dark asked, "She was _smoking_! Dang, I'd hit that up any da- OOF!" Midna smacked him across the head, a smirk across her face.

"You should see the Princess of Twilight then." she said matter-of-factly, "I heard she even left the Hero of Twilight's mouth agape." Let's just say Dark shut up after that.

Zelda sort-of half smiled at that, but Link could tell her comment about the fireworks was getting to her. Her mom had left her Dad when she was eight, and she had to go through her Dad's alcoholic stage and the criticism from the town all by herself. The thing was, no one could predict that her mom would have actually leave. She had always seemed so happy and content with her life. One day she just up and left. People always gossiped that she left with another man, and those rumors tore at Zelda's heart viciously to this day.

To comfort his best friend, Link took her hand and gripped it supportively. She looked at their hands, then at Link's face and smiled, wiping away any hint of sadness.

"Thanks." she said quietly.

Link gave a reassuring smile, "No problem."

At the end of the dirt wall, they waved good bye to their friends and headed towards Link's truck. He threw the blanket in the back, opened the passenger door for Zelda (like a true gentlemen would do), and then hopped in the driver's seat. The two drove to Zelda's house in silence. When they reached it, Link pulled into the driveway and watched Zelda get out and grab the blanket.

"Thanks for inviting me." She gave another half smile and headed into her house. Link's mind was racing as he watched her enter the house, and close the front door. A few moments later he saw her bedroom light turn on in her window.

Link was suddenly overcome with anxiety, an anxiety that made him think that he would never tell Zelda his true feelings and he would die alone. Okay, the die alone part was irrational, but Link's mind was thinking a mile a minute. For some reason, he felt he had to tell her _tonight_. Unable to bring himself to get out of his truck and knock on her door, Link looked around for a sharpie marker. He found one, and reached into his glove compartment and pulled out a long roll of paper. He kept in there for emergencies, and now was as good as an emergency as anything. He scribbled furiously on the paper, rolled down his window, and then got out of the truck. He placed the log tapestry of paper across his windshield, and, reaching into his truck, honked his horn twice.

A few moments later, Zelda opened her window and poked her head out. Link gestured to the paper, and she read it, her face breaking into a huge grin.

"Of course!" She exclaimed, "Wait there, I'll be down in a moment."

Link couldn't believe it, he was ecstatic. True to her word, Zelda was out of the house and into Link's arms in no time flat.

"I thought you would never asked." She said, her voice muffled by his shirt, "I was ready to give up."

So that's where the anxiety came from Link thought, and he hugged her tighter.

"You know what my wish was?" He whispered into her blonde hair.

"What?" she asked, tilting her face up to look into his eyes.

"That you would say yes. I thought that you didn't like me in that way, so I'm really happy I'm wrong."

Zelda grinned, "Yes, well, who can say no to such a romantic way to ask a girl out?"

Link nodded, "I'll have to keep that in mind." he joked.

Zelda gasped, "Just asking me out and already thinking of breaking up with me? You fiend!" She broke away from his embrace and wags her index finger at him. "You need to be taught a lesson!"

She chased Link around the yard then, and he never felt so happy in his life.

He ran passed the piece of paper with his love note scrawled on it, and read it once more for good measure:

**I, Link Avalon, pledge to never be a firework in your life,**

**If you, Zelda Harkinian, agree to date me out of the love in your heart.**

_Fin._

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**D'awwww, I still think that is the cutest thing ever! I'm actually really surprised I got this out on time, so I'll give myself a good pat on the back, lol.I got the idea for this story from *gasp* a _S__eventeen_ magazine article. Shocker right? But I have to say, this is my favorite one-shot so far and I hope you agree. Have a wonderful fourth of July and don't forget to review! **


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